Home grown: the organic way
This
is a free ‘hands on’ course designed for anyone wanting to start growing
organic fruit & veg.
• Perfect for beginners and anyone who wants to learn some new gardening
techniques.
• Whatever the size of your garden you will get all the information you
need to grow healthy and delicious veg.
• It’s about growing anywhere in the garden - in raised beds, in
containers or in the open ground.
• A free information pack with every workshop
Workshops for 2008
In the ASK Organic Garden in Woodside Walled Garden, by Jedburgh,
Borders, Scotland.
What is organic gardening?
Sat.15th March at 2pm. How to garden organically and what to do at the
beginning of the season.
Getting started
Sat 12th April at 2pm. Soil preparation, using compost and seed sowing.
Work in the fruit garden.
Pricking out, potting on and planting out.
Sat 10th May at 2pm. Techniques, planting distances and looking after
new plants. Protection from the weather
Last year’s workshops
Information packs on these 7 sessions are downloadable free of charge.
The leaflets are in pdf format, so download
Acrobat
Reader or
Foxit if you don't have software to read these files. The
leaflets are formatted for printing, so print page one, then print page
two on the back and then fold the paper in half to produce the leaflet.
The Healthy
Garden
Healthy
plants produce good crops and are a pleasure to look at but however
careful we are pest and disease problems sometimes arise. The most
effective way to combat a problem is to be vigilant and look out for
early signs, then correctly identify the cause and take steps to remedy
it. Know the enemy and apply measures that will disrupt its life cycle!
Be a Control Freak!
We
want our gardens to be as productive as possible, while at the same time
making sure our chosen plants get all the space and nutrients they need.
This means we must control weeds and the size, shape and health of the
plants we want.
Tender Veg
As
the risk of late frosts recedes, we can now safely plant out our more
delicate vegetables. The plants may be ones you have bought or swapped
or grown yourself in a greenhouse. All these varieties need to grow fast
to produce a crop in our short summer so they should be grown on a good
bed of compost or muck.
Growing Well
As
the summer develops, it’s increasingly important to maintain good
growing conditions. Plants that are growing strongly are much more
likely to withstand attack by pests and diseases. This includes keeping
them well fed and well watered. If pests do become a problem, biolgical
controls are a safe and environmentally sound solution.
Harvesting and Storing
Veg and fruit fresh from the garden is always tastiest but some crops
store perfectly well, providing you follow a few simple guidelines,
allowing you to enjoy your garden produce for many months.
Forward Planning
We
want to continue to enjoy fresh veg from our gardens throughout the
Winter and into next Spring and now is the time to get going to achieve
it. A range of crops will stand our Borders’ winters and some Enviromesh
or a polytunnel or greenhouse will increase your choice. You can plant
in ground used for an earlier crop like peas or potatoes.
Autumn Tasks
As
the growing season comes to an end, we start to look forward to next
Spring and how we can start preparing the garden for next year. This
involves conserving soil nutrients and taking steps to reduce pests.
These
workshops are funded by Lottery Awards for All